Morgan made it home today around 10:30.
She had another good day yesterday, feeling stronger and getting more bored with the hospital as the day went on.
The drainage tubes came out this morning. Her magnesium level is now in the normal range. Her calcium level has gone up over the past couple of days, but it is still low. She is taking two different calcium supplements, one twice a day and the other four times a day. Both of these levels will be checked again at her post-op appointment on Thursday afternoon along with her thyroid hormone levels that she is getting through the synthroid medication.
Her incision is healing nicely. The swelling has gone down and there is very little bruising. She has disposable stitches and then surgical glue on the outside, so there will be no stitches to be removed. The glue will peel away in about 10 days. She is allowed to get the incision wet, just not allowing the water to soak into it.
Her voice is getting stronger each day. She is still talking in a whisper, but it is not as rhaspy.
She says she isn't in much pain, it is more like an aching in her neck/incision area. She said the area feels tight and the incision area is starting to itch.
Kim
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Hospital - Day One
Morgan improved steadly throughout the day. There is still an IV needle in, but at this time she is not receiving any medication through it. Her calcium and magnesium levels have dropped and she received some supplements of each through the IV and then also in pill form. This is very common and they are hopeful her parathyroid glands will recover and beable to regulate her calcium again. Worst case senerio would be calcium/magnesium supplements taken 3 to 4 times a day by pill - so very doable. She was up and walked the halls a couple of times. She had been taking a Pecocet for pain about every six hours, but now has not had one since about 8:00 last evening. She still has drain tubes in her shoulders. The amount of drainage has gone down quite a bit with the right side still having more discharge. They started her on synthroid, a thyroid medication that she will take daily each morning about an hour before she eats.
Her voice is still a rhaspy-whisper, but better than it was Friday night (I'm sure Friday evening had a lot to do with the breathing tube during surgery). The have tested all of her other reflexes (can she stick her tongue out, smile, shrug her shoulders) and have found no other nerve damage. The are very confident that she will also have full use of her voice, it just will take some time.
We're not sure yet if she'll come home today or tomorrow. That will depend on when the drain tubes come out and whether or not she needs more calcium or magnesium through her IV.
Thanks for all your continued prayers.
Kim
P.S. Lance's volleyball team won their tournament. Steve and I were each able to see a couple of matches, taking turns between the hospital and volleyball.
Her voice is still a rhaspy-whisper, but better than it was Friday night (I'm sure Friday evening had a lot to do with the breathing tube during surgery). The have tested all of her other reflexes (can she stick her tongue out, smile, shrug her shoulders) and have found no other nerve damage. The are very confident that she will also have full use of her voice, it just will take some time.
We're not sure yet if she'll come home today or tomorrow. That will depend on when the drain tubes come out and whether or not she needs more calcium or magnesium through her IV.
Thanks for all your continued prayers.
Kim
P.S. Lance's volleyball team won their tournament. Steve and I were each able to see a couple of matches, taking turns between the hospital and volleyball.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Surgery
What a long day, but as always, Morgan was quite a trooper. We arrived at the hospital at 5:30, and she was taken to the operating room at 7:40. They had a hard time getting an IV in her, but after four tries there was success. Then she got some good drugs and was feeling pretty good when she left us. She was very matter-of-fact about everything and the doctors and nurses commented about how calm she was.
Surgery took about six hours, with almost another three hours in recovery. Recovery was so long because they did not have a room ready. This hospital is a very busy place.
The cancer was more extensive then the ultra sound orginally showed, but the surgeon is confident that he got it all. Several lymph glands were around the nerve that goes to the vocal chord on the right side. He does not believe that there will be any permanent damage to her vocal chord, but it could take several weeks to a few months for her to have her voice fully back.
She is now resting and will hopefully beable to get some good sleep tonight.
Thank you all again for all of your prayers you have been lifting up on Morgan's behalf. God is so good! Also thank your for your posts, emails and cards. You have made Morgan and all of us feel very loved.
Surgery took about six hours, with almost another three hours in recovery. Recovery was so long because they did not have a room ready. This hospital is a very busy place.
The cancer was more extensive then the ultra sound orginally showed, but the surgeon is confident that he got it all. Several lymph glands were around the nerve that goes to the vocal chord on the right side. He does not believe that there will be any permanent damage to her vocal chord, but it could take several weeks to a few months for her to have her voice fully back.
She is now resting and will hopefully beable to get some good sleep tonight.
Thank you all again for all of your prayers you have been lifting up on Morgan's behalf. God is so good! Also thank your for your posts, emails and cards. You have made Morgan and all of us feel very loved.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Some Good News!
On Friday, February 18, 2011, Morgan had two pre-op appointments. The first was for a CT scan of her chest area to see if the cancer had spread beyond her neck area. The CT scan was very quick this time, since they did not use iodine contrast. She was in and out of that appointment in less than 20 minutes. The second appointment was at The James for bloodwork, surgery details and paperwork. This appointment took about two hours. They again stated that the surgery will be 6 to 8 hours and anticipate that Morgan will be released from the hospital on Sunday. She will most likely be off from school for two weeks.
Earlier this afternoon, February 22, 2011, we received a call from the endocrinoligist office with great news! He had looked at the CT scan results from Friday and found no signs that the cancer has metastasized to her lungs or bones. We are very relieved that the cancer is only in her neck area.
Our specific prayers are for the doctor to have great indurance and steady hands during this long surgery. There are many nerves that run throught the neck area and there is a slight risk of nerve damage, especially in the area of the vocal chords.
Again, thank you all for your prayers. We will update again on Friday after surgery.
Earlier this afternoon, February 22, 2011, we received a call from the endocrinoligist office with great news! He had looked at the CT scan results from Friday and found no signs that the cancer has metastasized to her lungs or bones. We are very relieved that the cancer is only in her neck area.
Our specific prayers are for the doctor to have great indurance and steady hands during this long surgery. There are many nerves that run throught the neck area and there is a slight risk of nerve damage, especially in the area of the vocal chords.
Again, thank you all for your prayers. We will update again on Friday after surgery.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Surgery Scheduled
Morgan's surgery has been scheduled for Friday, February 25, 2011. She needs to be at the hospital at 5:30 a.m. and the surgery is scheduled to start at 7:00 a.m.
She has a pre-op appointment this Friday afternoon. She will have another CT scan and more bloodwork done.
Thank you for all of your continued prayers.
She has a pre-op appointment this Friday afternoon. She will have another CT scan and more bloodwork done.
Thank you for all of your continued prayers.
Friday, February 11, 2011
The Famous Neck
Over five hours, two doctors, one study, two ultra sounds, three vials of blood and lots of waiting equals no bowling today and no surgery scheduled.
What a long afternoon it was! We arrived at our appointment at 11:45 and left the office about 5:15. She was seen by several nurses taking vitals and medical history; vitals only once, medical history three times, and the road leading to the diagnosis more times than we can count.
We were all very impressed with the endocrinologist. He was obviously very knowledgeable, but also very personable. He spent quite a bit of time with us taking medical history, going over treatment, performing a neck exam and an ultra sound. The ultra sound found quite a few cancer cells. There is a 1.5 to 2 inch tumor in her thyroid. There are also several tumors in the lymph glands on each side and underneath the thyroid. He spent approximately 30 minute performing the ultra sound taking pictures of the thyroid and affected lymph glands.
Morgan was asked to participate in a study. This study is on the affects that genes play on thyroid cancer. This is similar to the study that was done on breast cancer and its links to genes/heredity. This paperwork took about 30 minutes to fill out, helping to pass some time while we waited to see the surgeon.
The surgeon was on site and able to see us today - after a two hour wait, we're glad we waited though rather than make another appointment. All he does is thyroid surgery, performing between two and three hundred surgeries a year. He has performed almost 3000 surgeries throughout his career. He has been at OSU for two years and before that he was at Vanderbuilt Medical Center. After he went over the normal medical history talk, he wanted to perform his own ultra sound. We then talked (he talked) about what surgery was needed and the risks of surgery.
Morgan's cancer is pretty extensive in her entire neck area. They say that the surgery itself will take six to eight hours. The thyroid and lymph glands have many nerves running around and through them, so it is very tedious to remove the affected areas without damaging the nerves. She will have at least a two night stay at the hospital, and could be out of school for up to two weeks. Six to eight weeks after surgery she will have the radioactive iodine treatment that will kill cancer cells throughout her body. Since her cancer is so extensive, we were told us that there is a possiblity that a second surgery may be needed and/or a second treatment of the radioactive iodine.
For non-emergency surgery, our surgeon and the operating rooms are booked until mid April. Morgan is a high priority case and they will be working on scheduling on Monday. They would like to have the surgery performed within the next two weeks. We told them that we could be ready in a days notice. Surgery will be at OSU Medical Center.
Thank you all for your continued thoughts, prayers, emails, posts, phone call and cards. We feel so blessed that we have so many people holding Morgan up in prayer.
What a long afternoon it was! We arrived at our appointment at 11:45 and left the office about 5:15. She was seen by several nurses taking vitals and medical history; vitals only once, medical history three times, and the road leading to the diagnosis more times than we can count.
We were all very impressed with the endocrinologist. He was obviously very knowledgeable, but also very personable. He spent quite a bit of time with us taking medical history, going over treatment, performing a neck exam and an ultra sound. The ultra sound found quite a few cancer cells. There is a 1.5 to 2 inch tumor in her thyroid. There are also several tumors in the lymph glands on each side and underneath the thyroid. He spent approximately 30 minute performing the ultra sound taking pictures of the thyroid and affected lymph glands.
Morgan was asked to participate in a study. This study is on the affects that genes play on thyroid cancer. This is similar to the study that was done on breast cancer and its links to genes/heredity. This paperwork took about 30 minutes to fill out, helping to pass some time while we waited to see the surgeon.
The surgeon was on site and able to see us today - after a two hour wait, we're glad we waited though rather than make another appointment. All he does is thyroid surgery, performing between two and three hundred surgeries a year. He has performed almost 3000 surgeries throughout his career. He has been at OSU for two years and before that he was at Vanderbuilt Medical Center. After he went over the normal medical history talk, he wanted to perform his own ultra sound. We then talked (he talked) about what surgery was needed and the risks of surgery.
Morgan's cancer is pretty extensive in her entire neck area. They say that the surgery itself will take six to eight hours. The thyroid and lymph glands have many nerves running around and through them, so it is very tedious to remove the affected areas without damaging the nerves. She will have at least a two night stay at the hospital, and could be out of school for up to two weeks. Six to eight weeks after surgery she will have the radioactive iodine treatment that will kill cancer cells throughout her body. Since her cancer is so extensive, we were told us that there is a possiblity that a second surgery may be needed and/or a second treatment of the radioactive iodine.
For non-emergency surgery, our surgeon and the operating rooms are booked until mid April. Morgan is a high priority case and they will be working on scheduling on Monday. They would like to have the surgery performed within the next two weeks. We told them that we could be ready in a days notice. Surgery will be at OSU Medical Center.
Thank you all for your continued thoughts, prayers, emails, posts, phone call and cards. We feel so blessed that we have so many people holding Morgan up in prayer.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Diagnosis
We have a lot of people asking about Morgan and our family, so I going to try and blog all that is going on to keep everyone up to date.
Morgan was dignosed with thryoid cancer on Tuesday, February 1, 2011 while she was at her annual cranial-facial appointment.
On November 12, 2010, Morgan got a sports physical at our local CVS, so she could try-out for the bowling team. (She made the team and is very much enjoying it.) The nurse practiciner told us that it looked like she had an enlarged thyroid and that we should get it checked out. On December 6, 2010, Morgan had a doctor's appointment with our family physician, where they did blood work and had us scheduled for an ultra sound. She had the ultra sound in late December. We then didn't hear anything throughout the holidays. Early in January, I called to follow-up and was told that she needed a CT scan and needle biopsy done. It took us a couple of weeks to get these tests scheduled (lost paperwork and no record of phone calls between the doctor's office and the hospital). Finally, on January 20, 2011 she had the CT scan done and on January 24, 2011 the biopsy was performed. During all of this time the doctor was not sharing much information, but of course our minds were everywhere.
I was trying to shield Morgan from all of the craziness of scheduling and was only telling her when an appointment was set and only of one appointment at a time. The evening I told her of the upcoming biopsy, she soaked it in for a few minutes and then turned to me and said, "What's the worst it could be, cancer?" Oh, how we try to shield our children from the stress of life and they are already dealing with it in their own way.
We were told that the doctor would have biopsy results on Wednesday afternoon, two days after the procedure. I called Wednesday, I called Thursday, I called Friday to get an answering machine each time. I must admit that the messages I left were not as polite as the previous one. Finally, on Friday I received a call back, only to tell me that it is usually 7 to 10 days befor they get results at their office. I beleive that was the longest week we have been through. I don't know how many times I would think/worry about what the results would be. I believe that I played out every senerio at least a dozen times in my head.
I'm already amazed at how God is showing himself through all of this. One morning I had Fox News on while we were getting ready and they had a story on about a young doctor who was recently dignosed with thyroid cancer. She was a new mom and was looking in the mirror while getting her hair done and noticed that her neck looked enlarged. She had it checked out and was dignosed very quickly. She has already had surgery and is waiting to have the radioactive iodine treatment. Both Steve and I sat on the edge of our bed amazed at the timing of such a story. God was certainly at work preparing us for what was to come.
On February 1, 2011, Morgan had her annual cranial facial appointment for her cleft lip/palate. For the most part we usually enjoy these appointments. We have gotten to know the doctors and staff throughout the years and feel very comfortable with them. Morgan had just had rhinoplastic surgery in August and we were looking forward to seeing her plastic surgeon so he could see what a great job he had done. Also, Morgan had finished up with braces over the summer and had just had veneers placed on her front teeth, so her smile was gorgeous. We were nearing the end of the years of treatment that she had gone through to correct this birth defect. As we were updating her medical history with the nurse and then the doctor about all of the testing she had recently gone through, our plastic surgeon left the room and made some phone calls, he came back in the room with a consent form for me to sign. Within 15 minutes he had biopsy results. It was so God's timing with us being at this appointment when we found out results. Our doctor was very professional yet caring in breaking the news to us. There was an ENT on site that was able to explain the surgery and treatment to us.
The next mornig we had an appointment with the ENT at his office. Steve was able to go with us and we were told more details of the surgery and post op treatment time line. An appointment was later set up for an edocrinologist, the specialist that will be in charge of post op treatment. Both Steve and I have talked with the ENT over the phone, and it has now been decided that Morgan's surgery and post op treatment will be done at the James Cancer Center at OSU. There is an entire team of doctors that work closely together to coordinate her entire procedure and treatment. We have an appointment with this team on February 11, 2011.
We have been told that Morgan will have surgery to have the entire thyroid and the affected lymph glands removed. They expect the surgery to take about six hours. She will have at least a 24 hour stay in the hospital. Approximately six weeks after surgery, she will have a radioactive iodine treatment. This is pill that is taken and the radioactive iodine goes throughout the body killing any remaining cancer cells. Morgan will then have to be basically in quarintine for three to five days. From what we have read and been told, she will especially need to stay away from pregnant women and small children, luckily we have none of those here at our house. There is over a 90% percent success rate for this surgery/treatment combination.
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.
Morgan was dignosed with thryoid cancer on Tuesday, February 1, 2011 while she was at her annual cranial-facial appointment.
On November 12, 2010, Morgan got a sports physical at our local CVS, so she could try-out for the bowling team. (She made the team and is very much enjoying it.) The nurse practiciner told us that it looked like she had an enlarged thyroid and that we should get it checked out. On December 6, 2010, Morgan had a doctor's appointment with our family physician, where they did blood work and had us scheduled for an ultra sound. She had the ultra sound in late December. We then didn't hear anything throughout the holidays. Early in January, I called to follow-up and was told that she needed a CT scan and needle biopsy done. It took us a couple of weeks to get these tests scheduled (lost paperwork and no record of phone calls between the doctor's office and the hospital). Finally, on January 20, 2011 she had the CT scan done and on January 24, 2011 the biopsy was performed. During all of this time the doctor was not sharing much information, but of course our minds were everywhere.
I was trying to shield Morgan from all of the craziness of scheduling and was only telling her when an appointment was set and only of one appointment at a time. The evening I told her of the upcoming biopsy, she soaked it in for a few minutes and then turned to me and said, "What's the worst it could be, cancer?" Oh, how we try to shield our children from the stress of life and they are already dealing with it in their own way.
We were told that the doctor would have biopsy results on Wednesday afternoon, two days after the procedure. I called Wednesday, I called Thursday, I called Friday to get an answering machine each time. I must admit that the messages I left were not as polite as the previous one. Finally, on Friday I received a call back, only to tell me that it is usually 7 to 10 days befor they get results at their office. I beleive that was the longest week we have been through. I don't know how many times I would think/worry about what the results would be. I believe that I played out every senerio at least a dozen times in my head.
I'm already amazed at how God is showing himself through all of this. One morning I had Fox News on while we were getting ready and they had a story on about a young doctor who was recently dignosed with thyroid cancer. She was a new mom and was looking in the mirror while getting her hair done and noticed that her neck looked enlarged. She had it checked out and was dignosed very quickly. She has already had surgery and is waiting to have the radioactive iodine treatment. Both Steve and I sat on the edge of our bed amazed at the timing of such a story. God was certainly at work preparing us for what was to come.
On February 1, 2011, Morgan had her annual cranial facial appointment for her cleft lip/palate. For the most part we usually enjoy these appointments. We have gotten to know the doctors and staff throughout the years and feel very comfortable with them. Morgan had just had rhinoplastic surgery in August and we were looking forward to seeing her plastic surgeon so he could see what a great job he had done. Also, Morgan had finished up with braces over the summer and had just had veneers placed on her front teeth, so her smile was gorgeous. We were nearing the end of the years of treatment that she had gone through to correct this birth defect. As we were updating her medical history with the nurse and then the doctor about all of the testing she had recently gone through, our plastic surgeon left the room and made some phone calls, he came back in the room with a consent form for me to sign. Within 15 minutes he had biopsy results. It was so God's timing with us being at this appointment when we found out results. Our doctor was very professional yet caring in breaking the news to us. There was an ENT on site that was able to explain the surgery and treatment to us.
The next mornig we had an appointment with the ENT at his office. Steve was able to go with us and we were told more details of the surgery and post op treatment time line. An appointment was later set up for an edocrinologist, the specialist that will be in charge of post op treatment. Both Steve and I have talked with the ENT over the phone, and it has now been decided that Morgan's surgery and post op treatment will be done at the James Cancer Center at OSU. There is an entire team of doctors that work closely together to coordinate her entire procedure and treatment. We have an appointment with this team on February 11, 2011.
We have been told that Morgan will have surgery to have the entire thyroid and the affected lymph glands removed. They expect the surgery to take about six hours. She will have at least a 24 hour stay in the hospital. Approximately six weeks after surgery, she will have a radioactive iodine treatment. This is pill that is taken and the radioactive iodine goes throughout the body killing any remaining cancer cells. Morgan will then have to be basically in quarintine for three to five days. From what we have read and been told, she will especially need to stay away from pregnant women and small children, luckily we have none of those here at our house. There is over a 90% percent success rate for this surgery/treatment combination.
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.
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